Of-late young Indian female actors have been turning into investors by backed innovative start-ups from across varied sectors. Although the said trend had been picking up pace over the past couple of years, 2022 saw many more such deals materializing. Here is a low-down on forward looking Indian female actors who turned investors in 2022.
2021 was the year of Indian start-ups, and 2022 is no different. With more and more investments flooding in for a variety of businesses in various industries, start-ups, like gold in the past, are becoming the ‘it-spot’ to invest in.
The glamorous world of start-ups has also enticed several celebrities to turn into entrepreneurs. We see several popular names who are working hard to get into the cutthroat business world, by many others investing in and being associated with start-ups, which allows them to explore their investor aspirations as well.
Of-late young Indian female actors have also turned into investors and have backed innovative start-ups from across varied sectors. Although the said trend had been picking up pace over the past couple of years, 2022 saw many more such deals materializing.
Here is a low-down on forward looking female actors who turned investors in 2022.
Sarah Ali Khan - The Souled Store
Sara Ali Khan, an Indian actor, became an equity partner of the pop culture retailer The Souled Store in March 2022. The Souled Store, situated in Mumbai and founded in 2013 by three young people named Vedang Patel, RohinSamtaney, and Aditya Sharma, is an online retailer for pop culture memorabilia. T-shirts, boxers, backpacks, mobile covers, socks, pins, badges, and a wide variety of other items are among its offerings. The start-up bills itself as India's largest source for fan apparel, boasting licences from Viacom18, Disney, Warner Bros., WWE, IPL teams, and EPL clubs. The firm was self-funded for its first five years until receiving seed funding from RP-SG Ventures in November 2018.
Since then, the business has expanded by over 4X owing to a focus on data, consumer insights, and feedback, as well as a commitment to prioritising client pleasure above all else. It received Rs 75 crore in Series B investment in August 2021, led by Elevation Capital.
Anushka Sharma -Blue Tribe
Together with her husband ViratKohli, Anushka has funded numerous enterprises. The power couple has once again invested an unknown sum in the plant-based meat business "Blue Tribe" in 2022.
The Blue Tribe was created by Sandeep Singh and Nikki Arora Singh in 2017. This firm sells plant-based meat products that resemble meat in every way, including flavour and texture, such as frozen minced chicken, chicken nuggets, keema, and even momos.
Athiya Shetty - Stage3
Bollywood actor Athiya Shetty made an undisclosed investment in Stage3, a fashion and leisure social commerce platform situated in New Delhi, in March 2022. The position of creative director for Stage3 will go to Athiya. Stage3, a full-stack social commerce marketplace for fashion where information, social connections, and commerce combine, was introduced in 2015 by Sabena Puri. It provides a curated, discovery-led, hyper-personalized shopping experience to its clients who are digital natives, allowing them to engage with India's creator economy of more than 5 million influencers and content creators.
A noteworthy group of investors, including Stanford Angels, Blume Ventures, Inflection Point Ventures, Nueva Ventures, Eragon Ventures, Let's Venture, Ananth Narayanan (Founder, Mensa Brands), Dinesh Aggarwal (CEO, India Mart), and SashwatNakrani (Co-Founder, Bharat Pe) has contributed Rs 20 crore to the firm.
RakulPreet Singh - Wellbeing Nutrition
The actress from Runway 34 invested an unknown sum in Mumbai-based Wellbeing Nutrition, a provider of plant-based whole food nutrition.
Daily wellbeing, functional nutrition, organic nutrition for children, and natural nutricosmetics are all produced by Wellbeing Nutrition. The company offers its goods online, through more than 2,000 physical locations in India, and through more than 5,000 locations in the United States, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, and Germany.
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan - Possible
AishwaryaRaiBachchan is one of the most popular Indian actresses and former Miss World, 1994. The beauty queen is one of the most well-known personalities in India and has received awards from both the governments of India and France, including the Padma Shri and the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
She is frequently referred to by the media as the most beautiful lady in the world. Aishwarya is currently an angel investor in the startup environment intelligence business Ambee. The actress most recently invested in Possible, a nutrition-based healthcare firm. The startup's aim is to battle lifestyle diseases and improve the lives of 10 million individuals.
Samantha Ruth Prabhu - SustainKart
Samantha Ruth Prabhu, an Indian actress who made her Bollywood debut in the film Family Man-2, invested in SustainKart, an online store that sells sustainable goods, in March 2022. She contributed to the seed round of SustainKart. Additionally, the firm declared the opening of its first retail franchise model. The seed round money will be used by SustainKart for marketing to attract new customers and to help offline retailers provide a distinctive in-store customer experience.
SustainKart is a company that offers a variety of sustainable and eco-friendly products spanning from fashion to design, beauty and wellness, furnishings to gifting, nutrition and snacks, kids care, pet care, etc. It was founded in 2021 by KanthiDutt and Shilpa Reddy in Hyderabad. It is a marketplace that presently features over 1000 businesses and 85,000 SKUs with the goal of transforming homes via the usage of conscious products. The goal of the firm is to alter how much money Indians spend on lifestyle goods. By 2023, it hopes to reach unicorn status. SustainKart asserts that since its debut in January 2021, it has achieved a number of significant milestones. This includes developing a private label, funding a pre-Seed round, and buying two D2C brands.
Shilpa Shetty Kundra - Fast&Up and Chicnutrix
In July 2022, Shilpa Shetty made an undisclosed investment in the D2C nutritional supplement businesses Fast&Up and Chicnutrix.
In addition, she has been a brand ambassador for these companies, working to support and advance self-care and health in India. Additionally, Shilpa Shetty has invested in Simple Soulful and Mamaearth.
The items that Fast&Up and Chicnutrix have produced are among the best available. Due to the fast-paced nature of the modern lifestyle, it can be challenging to consume all the necessary vitamins and nutrients on a daily basis for the body, hair, skin, energy, and overall health. Their products perfectly meet the needs of the present.
